Rural Water Movement

In the not too distant past, fire departments relied on natural flowing creeks and streams, stock ponds and/or swimming pools the supplement the water carried on a fire engine. Today however, there is a significant portion of Upshur County that has water service and most fire departments with the exception of Station 1, have water tankers with drop tanks.

21 firefighters from Stations 1, 2 and 6 conducted a training exercise Thursday night at the Buckhannon Public Safety Complex. The focus of the training was the use of drop tanks and portable pumps. At a working fire, large amounts of water are required and the use of a fire hydrant may not always be the best source of water. If the water supply line from the fire hydrant to the engine crosses the road, that road then becomes impassable unless the water supply is turned off. Not good, especially for any firefighters conducting an interior fire attack. The use of drop tanks and water tankers is frequently used to provide an adequate source of water while at the same time allowing roads to remain open.

In our training exercise we used a two drop tank deployment with a large diameter hose siphon between the tanks. This dual drop tank configuration was used at the Key Energy fire earlier this year and effectively provided a 4000 gallon water source for fire control. Participants also used a variety of portable pumps that can be used in firefighting or more routinely in public service details such as pumping out a flooded basement.